"I'll do mashed, then." She prepares the yams accordingly. "What's an onion ring, anyway?"

She holds up one of the onion discs that she hasn't cut in half or separated yet. "Cut an onion into these, separate into rings, coat in batter, deep-fry in oil."

"Hmm! Now there's a thought. I've never deep-fried anything but I've heard of it; I think they do it in the city?" She piles all her yams in a pot. "Hold that thought, I need to go fill this with water." Out back to the water pump she goes.

Cheerfully she chops the onion discs. Chop chop chop. And then she starts separating, breaking each half- or quarter-disc into its individual layers.

Lily is soon back, lugging the full pot, which she then puts on to boil. "Are deep-fried foods popular where you're from?"

"Very," she says as she separates onion layers. "I've seen everything from deep-fried seafood, meat, or poultry, to deep-fried vegetables, or even chocolate bars or ice cream. There are precious few things people won't deep-fry, where I come from."

She finishes separating the onions, resulting in a large pile of slightly curved strips. "Where do you want these?"

"Over here," she says, stepping to the side to make room for Sable to get the onions into the pan. "Deep-fried ice cream? How do you even manage that?"

She sweeps all the onion strips off the cutting board and into the pan. "Very quickly, and with very thoroughly frozen ice cream," she replies.

"Huh! Well, if they don't already have it in the city, you'll make somebody's day by giving them the idea."

"Sounds like a fun way to make friends with a chef over there."

"I bet it will be!"

"There are a lot of things I'm looking forward to about the city: better work opportunities, a chance to get my tools, maybe some books, things like that. I think I'll miss the lake, though." She shakes her head and grins. "Good thing I'm planning to come back. So, what's your favorite recipe? Both in general, and your favorite with hard-to-get materials."

"In general? Can't go wrong with a good vegetable stew. Hard-to-get materials? Back when I had a source for non-transformative eggs, I picked up a taste for egg drop soup."

"Ooooooooh. First of all, yes, your vegetable stew is delicious. But second, oooooh. I haven't had a good egg drop soup in months. Maybe years. Okay. That's going on the list. What makes non-transformative eggs hard to get here?"

"Nearly any egg you find that's the right kind to cook with will have come out of someone who has a transformation that makes eggs, and nearly anyone with that transformation has it so they can make transformative eggs. I used to have contacts who could get me the other kind, but I haven't heard from them in years."

"Hmm. I'll have to ask around, see if I can find someone who actually raises properly mundane poultry. Either that, or see if I can sweet-talk someone who's looking for an egg-laying transformation into taking one that doesn't lay transformative eggs, and bribe Hazel to brew a transformative that leaves the user's eggs non-transformative. Sounds like a fun little quest."

She hums thoughtfully. "What sort of dropping out of touch was it? Possibly the sort where I could venture out to find them, maybe?"

She lets out a bit of a sigh, shaking her head slightly.

"I wouldn't want to see you get hurt looking for someone who's probably not around anymore one way or another. That's not to say you definitely can't do it, just—the world is a dangerous place."

"I really appreciate the concern, Lily. A lot." She sighs, and smiles bittersweetly. "I promise I won't go looking for them without having a Significant upgrade in my combat capability first, and probably not even then, not unless I've got a good lead and a good chunk of time to go exploring in."

"Well, then, maybe someday you can ask and I'll tell you what I know about where to find them."

She smiles softly and nods. "I've had friends disappear before. It's not fun. And you've been really good to me, so I'd like to do what I can about such things if the opportunity comes up."

"I appreciate it," she says, though she looks more closed-off than usual when she says it.

Well, Sable can just appreciate the quiet for a bit, and watch how Lily cooks this meal.

The onions simmer slowly down into something that does seem to deserve the name 'onion jam', and the yams finish boiling and get drained into a basin and mashed with a knob of butter for creaminess. Then it's onto the plates and out to the table!

She steps out quickly and brings in a pitcher of water just as the food goes onto plates, and sits down with a smile. "This looks delicious, Lily. Thank you."

"I try." She takes a bite. "Yeah, this was a good combination."